This Friday, the Oklahoma Sooners will travel to Morgantown to play the West Virginia Mountaineers with hopes to extend their five game winning streak. West Virginia, while not a playoff contender anymore following last week’s devastating loss in Stillwater to an unranked Oklahoma State, have not lost sight of a Big Twelve championship, and are ready to defend their home turf.
The Sooners, led by Heisman contender Kyler Murray, and the nation’s best offense, will undoubtedly face their biggest challenge so far. Oklahoma’s offense comes into this week as the best statistical offense in CFB, with over 6300 total yards and 71 touchdowns. However, this offense was not propelled into the top spot because of a few great weeks. Kyler Murray’s offense is also the most consistent in the country averaging over 576 yards per game, and they look to continue their success against a struggling WVU defense who has allowed opponents to average over 5 yards per play against them, an easy task for the Sooner’s high-powered offense to complete.
West Virginia will also bring a Heisman contending quarterback into Friday’s matchup. Will Grier (senior) and the West Virginia offense are currently ranked 10th in total offense, and they are most certainly looking forward to playing an awful Sooners defense. The Oklahoma defense has been in shootouts with unranked teams the past three weeks, and in one of those games they allowed 3-7 Kansas (at the time) to score 40 in Norman. The Sooners defense is ranked 87th in the nation and is universally recognized as the worst defense of any contender, something West Virginia’s offense, who is averaging over 500 yards per game, will surely take advantage of.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Other than a shootout, what else can be expected in this weekend’s highly anticipated matchup? West Virginia is undefeated at home this season, and the Sooners are undefeated in true road games, so both teams will be playing where they perform best, this game will surely go down to the wire. These high powered offenses will score often, and will both turn the ball over at least once. This season Oklahoma has turned the ball over ten times, six of which were the result of the Kyley Murray forcing balls down field, which he will surely have to do on Friday in a game where both teams will feel immense pressure to score on every drive. Will Grier is a great player, but he is also a gunslinger who has tossed eight interceptions this season, and like Kyler, he too will have to throw the long ball to keep his team in the game. This makes turnovers extremely probable for both teams. Expect a shootout, with little to no defense from these two elite programs who are the class of the Big 12.
PHOTO CREDITS – Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images.
AND https://draftwire.usatoday.com/2018/09/29/will-grier-nfl-draft-heisman-trophy-college-football-west-virginia/
